Just Think Unhappy Thoughts
by Oro-han
Summary: Noctis is stressed out from how many times they've been camping in a row, having problems young men tend to have when they need some privacy and don't get it.
1. Chapter 1

Noctis woke with a start, the faint glow of the dwindling campfire lighting the otherwise dark tent, the other three sleeping soundly around him. It was cool out but he was sweating, his breathing labored, and he was very, _very_ uncomfortable.

They'd been camping every night for _weeks_ now; running back and forth doing one thing or another, trying to find a way to Altissia around a ferry that wasn't running. They almost had it all figured out, leaving on his father's boat out of Caem, but until they got the last few things taken care of they wouldn't be able to set sail. Going back to a rest area for a motel took precious time, and time was on the Empire's side, so they were camping, _again_.

It wasn't sleeping on the ground, or Gladio's snoring, or Prompto's sleep talking that made sleeping in a tent so bad, even if they didn't help, it was the lack of privacy. When they stayed in a hotel, on nights like this, he could take a cold shower and get it out of his system. Or an extra long shower before bed if they called it a night early enough. Camping though, there was nothing he could do but go back to sleep and pray he woke himself up before his dreams got too exciting. They seemed to be getting more exciting by the night too. Hell, he was afraid to drift off in the car at this point.

Noctis knew it was effecting his mood, but if the others knew they didn't let on. He hoped they assumed he was just antsy to get to Altissia. With the Empire breathing down their necks, and the fact that Altissia was technically part of the Empire, he had every right to be high strung about it. So he would assume they would assume it was that and leave well enough alone until they got there. He was willing to play that part too, if he could keep his sanity intact.

His biggest problem was that it had been a while, a very stressful while admittedly, and he was a healthy twenty year old man with healthy twenty year old man needs that were manifesting in the form of dreams that demanded... _satisfaction_. What he didn't get is why the others seemed to be just fine after all this time, or they were just hiding it better than he was. Noctis doubted Prompto could keep much of anything a secret though, not with how much he ran his mouth awake or otherwise.

Noctis rolled over, trying to ignore the throbbing between his thighs, intense and more than a little painful. He definitely had a bad case of blue balls going on. If he tried to go back to sleep like this he was absolutely going to have a mess to clean up in the morning. They were all friends, they'd understand, but he'd rather die than face the endless jokes that would follow. He would never live that down. He could defeat the Empire, restore his kingdom, marry the Oracle and he would still hear about it on his deathbed.

Staring off into space, thinking of unattractive things like fighting MTs or crawling through an abandoned mine in the dark, he tried to distract himself. He let his mind wander on boring, mundane, or downright unpleasant tasks to try and calm himself. He focused on distracting himself so hard that he didn't even realize he was staring at Prompto's sleeping face, his eyes tracing the lines of his nose and lingering on slightly parted lips.

Noctis thought about blonde hair and rosy lips, blue eyes and long lashes and… dammit, he was supposed to be thinking about unpleasant things. Not the traits his best friend and fiance happened to have in common; because that was definitely what he had just been thinking of, his fiance, and not that he kind of liked freckles.

"Think unhappy thoughts, Noct." He whispered to himself, rolling back over, so he faced away from Prompto. "Unhappy thoughts."

It should be sufficiently unhappy that he was just thinking about a fist full of blonde hair and blow job while staring at his best friend sleeping only a couple of feet away, but right now it was just not unhappy enough.

Fuck it, he was just going to have to slip out of the tent and hope he didn't get caught.


	2. Chapter 2

Noctis let his sword disappear back into the ether, panting heavily as he just sort of flopped down in the dirt.

"What the hell was that?" Gladio dropped his sword, it disappearing as it left his hand, and stomped over to Noctis. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Noctis rolled his eyes, he was too tired for this shit. "Yeah, definitely what I'm going for. Just trying to die a little, don't mind me."

"You keep pulling shit like that, and you will die." Gladio growled. "That was sloppy, and stupid. What makes it worse is you were making stupid mistakes and dragging out a fight that should have been over in a few seconds, so we're having to watch your dumb ass instead of killing things that need to be killed."

Ignis grabbed Gladio by the shoulder. "I think," He said pointedly, looking at Gladio with all the calm and reason he possessed, "That we should call it an early day. Everyone is tired, and I think it's time for a break."

Gladio looked at Ignis, and Noctis wondered if he was going to pick a fight with him too for a few seconds, but then he just turned and stomped towards the car.

Ignis gave Noctis a questioning look, but didn't say anything as he followed. Prompto came over and offered Noctis a hand up.

"You alright?" Prompto asked as he helped Noctis to his feet. "You've been off all day."

Noctis didn't make eye contact, pointedly looking anywhere but Prompto as he remembered exactly why he was so tired. "Yeah, just couldn't sleep."

Prompto nodded. "I feel you, all this camping is driving me crazy. No matter how much I sleep I'm still tired the next day." He rubbed the small of his back, obviously thinking about sleeping on rocks.

"Yeah."

When they got back to the car Ignis was already in the driver's seat, and Gladio was sitting in the front passenger's seat. Noct snorted to himself, let him be pissy then.

He and Prompto slid into the back seat, and Noctis leaned up against the door, closing his eyes and hoping to get a little bit of _dreamless_ sleep before his problems caught back up to him. His eyes burned, and he was sure that if he looked in a mirror he'd have huge dark circles under them. Luckily it was easy to avoid mirrors when they never slept in a hotel.

Some time later Noctis started awake, maybe it was a bump in the road? He yawned and rubbed his eyes, cracking them just enough to see the sun was still high overhead and there was nothing but uninhabited countryside and empty road around.

He closed his eyes again, intent on going back to sleep. Then his 'pillow' moved next to him.

Noctis was very quickly very awake, sitting up and scooting over to his side of the back seat and back against his door. Prompto just sat up bleary eyed and looked around, before getting himself comfortable again and passing back out.

Noctis stayed awake the rest of the ride.

Overall it was a quiet trip to Lestallum, and there were still about five or six hours of daylight left when they pulled in.

"I'll see about arranging accommodations." Ignis said as he cut the ignition.

Gladio grunted and grabbed their gear out of the trunk following, still not talking to Noctis, and still obviously upset.

Prompto stretched and yawned, having slept through the whole ride there. Noctis had spent the last leg of the trip pretending to sleep while he tried desperately hard to forget that he had snuck off from camp the night before to handle his problems, and spent the rest of the night kept awake by his own shame.

It seemed he did have a thing for freckles.

"Sweet," Prompto blinked, still trying to clear his vision, and speaking around another yawn. "Actual beds tonight."

"Yeah, finally." Noctis tried to sound relieved, he knew he should be, but with Gladio's pissy mood he knew who he'd be sharing a bed with.

"What's wrong? Gladio still pissed?" Prompto asked, stretching again as he finally climbed out of the car.

"Yeah." Noctis said, a little grateful for the fight to cover up his bad mood.

"He'll get over it." Prompto shrugged it off, smiling. "Let's go look around for a bit, before we head over to the hotel?"

Noctis was going to say no, but Prompto had already grabbed him by the wrist and was dragging him towards the market in the center of town.

Noctis stared at the hand around his wrist as he was dragged along, feeling a tingly and uncomfortable sensation in his stomach. What would Prompto think if he knew? They'd been friends for a long time, and Prompto had practically lived at his apartment in high school, but all of that could be ruined by something like this. Guys just didn't do that sort of thing.

Noctis remembered hearing that all guys thought about sleeping with their female friends at some point, but he had all of two, and had never really seen Idris that way. Also he hadn't seen Luna in person in twelve years, he had thought about it though, because they were supposed to be getting married and that's what married people did. He was just pretty sure you weren't supposed to have those thoughts about your _guy_ friends.

"Noct, check this out." Prompto let him go finally, leaving Noct with that same uncomfortable feeling before and a sense of loss. "Dude, didn't Talcott say something about a Cactuar when we talked to him in Caem?"

One of the venders had little trinkets for sale, useless little things, but sure enough there was a Cactuar figure in there. "Yeah, he said he collected them." Noctis picked it up, examining the colorful little figure. They would be shipping out of Caem in a few days, once the repairs were finished, and heading to Altissia, where he was supposed to have been getting married.

"We should buy it for him," Prompto was leaning over his shoulder to look at the figure in Noctis's hand, his chest pressed against Noctis's back, and his breath on his neck.

Noctis could feel his face heating, and his body becoming uncomfortably warm. "Yeah, let's do that." He said it faster than he'd meant to, but used pulling the gil out of his pocket to pull away from the too-closeness of Prompto.

They continued to walk around the market for a while after that, Prompto excitedly going from stall to stall, picking things up and looking at them no matter how useless they were, and Noctis following behind trying to figure out what the hell he was doing.

"I'm going to sit down." Noctis said, pointing to the plastic tables and chairs of the street food carts off to the side. He didn't wait for a response before he headed that direction.

Noctis flopped into one of the plastic chairs, and rested his head in his hands, palms pressed to the back of his eye lids. " _Get yourself together."_ He thought, rubbing his hands over his face trying to dispel his bad mood. He was pretty sure that he'd somehow made his situation go from bad to worse.

" _Of course you did"_ The voice in his head reminded him. " _You jerked off thinking about your best friend, now you can't look him in the eye."_ It wasn't exactly the best way to deal with pent up sexual frustration. Noctis really wished he could just go to sleep and never wake up again.

"Hey." There was a slap on his back that caused Noctis to jump, startled out of his thoughts. Prompto had returned, several skewers of mystery meat in his hands. "You falling asleep?" He seemed concerned.

"Just thinking." Noctis sat up and took one of the skewers offered to him, and Prompto sat down across from him.

"About what?" Prompto asked around a mouth full of food, nearly unintelligible.

Noctis sighed. "I don't want to talk about it."


	3. Chapter 3

They weren't on the road ten minutes before Noctis was gently snoring in the back seat, completely out. Prompto knew he wasn't the only one who noticed that Noctis had been up way before the rest of them that morning, and everyone knew he was acting out of it.

Gladiolus was in the front seat, still obviously pissed off, arms folded over his chest and looking at the scenery passing by as Ignis drove. Prompto could see Ignis look back at him and Noctis through the rearview mirror.

"Prompto?" Ignis spoke, making eye contact briefly through the mirror, "Do you think I could ask you to do something?"

"Sure Iggy, what's up?" Prompto scooted forward, leaning on the back of the front to seats so he could hear better over the rushing wind.

"I'm sure you've noticed that Noct has been out of sorts the last few days." He kept his voice low, so it wouldn't carry, making it a little difficult for Prompto to hear, but he got the idea.

"Yeah." Even though he could still hear snoring, he glanced over his shoulder cautiously anyway. "He's been weird for a while."

"Yes, so I was wondering, when we stop, if you can try to figure out what's been on his mind?" Ignis shifted a little, as if trying to get comfortable in his seat. "I don't mean to say that I'm trying to go behind his back, but see if there's anything you can do for him. He tends to be more open with you about these things."

"Alright," Prompto agreed grudgingly, hearing Gladio grunt unhappily from the front passenger seat. "I'll see what I can do." It was a weird request, but Prompto guessed that if Ignis was asking him to try and get something out of Noctis he must be pretty worried.

Prompto sat back in the seat, but before he could move back to his side of the car, Noctis shifted and was laying against his arm, still sound asleep. It looked like he was stuck for the time being.

Some time later the car was stopping, and everyone was getting out to stretch their legs. At some point Prompto had fallen asleep, and he and Noctis had moved back to their respective sides of the back seat.

He dragged himself out of the car, more tired than he had thought he was. Sleeping on the ground every night was killing him. As he stretched and yawned, eyes watering, every single on of his muscles seemed to protest. He was looking forward to a hot shower and a bed.

"Sweet, actual beds tonight."" Prompto's words were strangled with another yawn.

"Yeah, finally." Noctis sounded less than thrilled, if anything he sounded unhappy about the whole thing.

"What's wrong?" Prompto prodded for information, remembering Ignis's request. "Gladio still pissed?"

Noctis hesitated for just a second, probably short enough that he didn't even notice himself, but Prompto was on the lookout. "Yeah."

He shrugged to himself, smiling as he thought of how to get Noctis away from the others until he could decide how to get information. "He'll get over it. Let's go look around for a bit, before we head over to the hotel?"

He grabbed Noctis by the arm and dragged him along, not accepting no for an answer. He'd poke and prod until he got something, or an idea.

As usual the market in Lestallum was packed with people, like women in bits and pieces of their gear from the power plant. There were also cute girls in casual clothes, kids, and older couples. As always everyone was super friendly.

Prompto would be the first to admit he was easily distracted. "Noct, check this out." He let go of Noctis and rushed towards one of the tables. "Dude, didn't Talcott say something about a Cactuar when we talked to him in Caem?"

Noctis came and looked at the little figures, picking one up. "Yeah, he said he collected them." Prompto moved up behind him to look over Noctis's shoulder to get a better look, trying not to block other customers on either side.

"We should buy it for him," Prompto felt Noctis stiffen, his muscles tensing as he spoke, and noticed how quickly he pulled away from him to get to his wallet. That was unusual.

"Yeah, let's do that."

Easily distracted or not, it bothered Prompto that Noctis would act like that with him. They'd been buddy-buddy forever, and Noctis had never acted like that with him before.

He kept an eye on Noctis to see if he was just avoiding people in general, but other than stuffing his hands in his pockets and playing with his phone, he seemed tired and mostly normal.

Suddenly Noctis heaved a heavy sigh, like he remembered or thought of something he didn't want to. "I'm going to sit down." He was already walking away before Prompto could say anything.

"Oh, okay…" He stood and watched as Noctis just fell into the chair, head in his hands, looking miserable. Something was seriously going on with him, Ignis was right about that. He was always socially withdrawn, but he also had that cocky attitude that was more of a 'you don't want to mess with me', and right now he was acting like 'please don't mess with me' if Prompto had to describe it.

The scent of the street food wafted over and Prompto's stomach growled loudly. First food, then he'd just start asking until he got an answer or a fight. Knowing Noctis, probably a fight before he said anything, but maybe it was worth the risk to help his friend out with whatever this was?

"Noct." He said as he came up on him, still with his head in his hands, unmoved as far as Prompto could tell. He didn't respond. "Hey. You falling asleep?"

Noctis looked exhausted, even more tired than he had this morning, if that were possible. "Just thinking."

He stuffed food in his mouth as he asked, these things were pretty good. "What about?"

Noctis still wouldn't look him in the eye, that was the second time today where he was really obvious about it. "I don't want to talk about it."

They ate in silence, Prompto thinking about the day so far. He was pretty sure, other than the fight with Gladio this morning, that Noctis was mad at him. He wouldn't look at him, was way uncomfortable when he touched him, and he was just sort of avoiding him as much as he could. Prompto just didn't know why.

The thought really hurt too. Thinking back, he and Noctis had never really fought about anything before, they'd always gotten along pretty well, even when he was being moody about something related to Gladio or Ignis. What hurt more is that he wasn't saying anything about it; every time he got mad at the other two he'd just yell at them for it, but he was avoiding Prompto.

Maybe Prompto wasn't worth the effort to yell at?

Prompto shook his head, trying to erase the thought completely. If Noctis didn't want him here, he wouldn't be here, that's what he'd said before and Prompto was going to believe it until there was a good reason not to.

Prompto stood up. "Come on, let's go somewhere quieter. It's too crowded here."

Noctis was moving slow again, hesitating, so Prompto grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him off again.

Once they cleared the crowds of the market he let Noctis's arm drop, turning on him with a deep breath to brace himself. "Alright, I can't take it anymore. What is wrong with you today?"

Noctis's whole body stiffened, and he focused on a spot on the ground intently looking at anything but Prompto. "Nothing."

Prompto shifted his weight from one foot to the other, scratching the back of his head as he tried to think of what to say. "Noct, man, come on, you've been weird for days. _Days_."

Noctis scratched the side of his nose with one finger, still looking away, obviously avoiding looking in Prompto's direction. "I'm just tired." He was lying.

Prompto stuffed his hands in his pockets, kicking the ground out of both nervousness and frustration. His heart pounded in his chest, he did not like confrontation, and this was definitely a confrontation. "Noct, I'm really not stupid." He paused, debating if he wanted to say what else he was thinking. "I know you're lying to me." Not quite, less direct than he'd intended.

He still expected Noct to get mad, to yell at being called a liar, but he didn't. Noctis folded his arms over his chest, again staring at the ground, and he looked… embarrassed? That was definitely embarrassed, Prompto would put money on it if he had any.

"I just… I really, _really_ don't want to talk about it." Noctis was muttering to himself quietly, he looked like he wanted to curl up on himself and disappear, a feeling Prompto was familiar with, and therefor recognized.

"Dude," Prompto sighed, thinking about how Noctis had nearly messed up big time earlier today, why Gladio was obviously pissed at him. "I get that, I can tell you don't want to talk about it, but… you're messing up, you're way off your game, and everyone is worried about you." He ran his hand over his hair, adrenaline making him shaky, he hated Ignis form making him do this. What part of 'lover, not fighter' did the others not understand?

Noctis winced at the reminder of the fight that had made Gladio lose his cool. "That bad?"

"That bad." Prompto agreed.

"Shit." Noctis drew in a sharp breath, obviously thinking about something, and exhaled again. "I just," He stopped, changing his mind. "You ever think about something, and even if you _know_ no one else knows, you just can't get it out of your head?"

"Yeah, all the time." Did Prompto know that feeling, he lived that feeling. "You can't let it mess you up like this though, Noct. If it's just a thought, well, everyone has stray thoughts. _Weird_ thoughts even, but as long as they're just thoughts," he shrugged, "who cares?"

Noctis finally looked up at him, making eye contact. "What if, what _if_ , they aren't just thoughts, what if you do act on them? I mean, it's not like it hurts anybody, but I don't know, you still feel bad about it?"

Prompto was beginning to doubt this had something to do with him, like he thought earlier. "If it doesn't hurt anybody, then why feel bad about it?"

Noctis looked away again, quiet for a long time, and Prompto worried if he had said something wrong. Noct could be moody, but he was usually the angry kind, not the uncertain kind, and it was weird to see. Prompto opened his mouth to speak, but Noctis said something first, too quiet to hear.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, I don't want to ruin our friendship." Those words felt like a dagger in the chest. Noctis seemed to realize something was wrong, because he looked up, and his eyes widened and he stepped forward, grabbing Prompto by the shoulder. "I didn't mean it like that. Really, Prompt, I just feel like I did something stupid."

"W-what did you do?" Prompto suddenly really didn't want to know.

Noctis looked away _again_ , his face red, redder than it got when he got into a yelling match with Gladio. "I don't want to say."

Prompto wasn't going to run away from this. He stepped closer to Noctis, the other's hand still on his shoulder. "What did you do?" Decision to stick this out or no, his voice came out a cautious whisper.

Noctis scrunched his nose, making a face as he thought, looking confused at what to do or say. Then he turned, grabbed Prompto by the other shoulder and kissed him.

Prompto's heart sort of stopped beating, and he was pretty sure he wasn't breathing either. Hard slightly chapped lips pressed against his firmly and insistently. Then as soon as it happened, it was over and Noctis stepped back, looking more his slightly pissed off self again.

"Any more questions?" Noctis demanded more than asked, Prompto shook his head. "Can we stop talking about this now?" Prompto nodded. "Good."

* * *

As soon as the younger two entered the hotel room Noctis bee-lined for the bathroom, locking the door behind him, the sound of running water coming from inside, and Prompto walked in a daze to sit on the bed.

Ignis was more concerned than he had been before, whatever was wrong was spreading. He could tell looking at Prompto that his thoughts were very far away.

"So, you didn't get it sorted out?" He asked, already knowing the answer. Prompto shook his head, lost in thought. "Do you at least know what's wrong?"

Prompto swallowed, turning to look at Ignis with what he could only describe as a deer-in-the-headlights sort of expression. "I have an idea."

Well it was a start, they could work with an idea, but if it was so revolutionary that Prompto was now out of sorts it could be a difficult task to deal with. "Well then, we'll have to work from there. Can you tell me about it?"

Prompto suddenly turned red, all the way to his hairline, his ears practically glowing, and he shook his head violently back and forth. "No, no, definitely not."

This was going to be a problem.


End file.
